SoCal ITR

I recently had to replace the tires on my car and as many of you know, the Azenis were on backorder. I did some research and had decided to go with the 195/50 Bridgestone Potenza S-03's. Unfortunitely, they too were unavailable when I needed new tires.

I decided to go out on a limb and try something that no one I knew was running yet. Tire rack gave the Eagle F1 better ratings than the S-03's, which as many of you know, is an incredible tire. Tire rack had the 195/50 15 Eagle F1's for $79 each. Max Performance tire ratings here.

I've put maybe 700-800 miles on them so far and I think they are great tires. It's been a while since I've had the 010's on my car, but I would not be at all upset if this tire came as OEM equipment on the ITR.

Turn in is crisp and grip is 9/10ths of the Azenis. This tire is has the best of both worlds, and it's great in the rain too.

We've had rain in the East quite a bit lately, and this tire absolutely stunned me in the rain. I found myself with my jaw dropped a few times. Wet grip is great and I haven't hydroplaned yet. I was comfortable driving 80-85 on the highway with a moderate rain fall.

The only complaint I have is that the overall diameter is smaller, so at highway speeds, your speedo will read about 5 mph over your actual speed. THis really is not a big deal to me... it like a slightly higher final drive And driving a little slower wouldn't hurt me either..

I really like this tire, and as of now, I wouldn't hesitate on buying another set... although it's too early for any indicaton on tire wear, but I'll know soon enough.



Disclaimer: This is just my opinion, I am not responsible if you buy the tires and don't agree!

Chris


Modified by SoCal ITR at 3:05 AM 7/19/2003

migs

Nice, why not the 205-50-15 or even the 195-55-15 Chris?

Pondus

-Chris,

Nice review, I've had mine on for about 5000kms and have come to the same conclusion as you have, really nice tires with excellent grip in the wet. As we have a lot of rain around here that's an important quality for me. I've been running hard on mine on mostly of twisty roads and expect to get about another 5000 kms out of them before they are worn out.
It may sound like they wear out fast, but the roads up here in Norway are very twisty, straigths over 2 kms are rare, add to that the fact that I'm known to have a heavy right foot and I think the tire wear is as excpected, I'm sure they could last twice the distance under different conditions. I have recently rotated mine and while the fronts showed a lot of wear (about 60-70%) the rears where almost like new I would not hesitate to buy them again myself, they get from me

SoCal ITR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Migs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nice, why not the 205-50-15 or even the 195-55-15 Chris?</TD></TR></TABLE>

195/50 is the only size they make in this tire for 15" wheels.

The next size up is 205/45 16, which would be great if I had JDM wheels.

And the price was good considering most of the eagle F1 prices are somewhat congruent with the S-03's pricing... even true in this case, although tire rack no longer has 195/50 15 S-03's.

Dirt

I just got done driving in some rain with my 195/50 Pirelli PZeros (maybe 1000 miles on them now) and they are nice too. Again, they are a tad narrow and are undertiring the R (for track use) but for street use they are great for $50 each. Too bad Tire Rack sold out of them.

B2FiNiTY

iTrader: (2)

Good to hear you tried something different Chris. I'm interested in how long they will last under your car.

George H

Thanks for the review Chris. It's good to know we have a few more reasonably priced tires out there to choose from.

SoCal ITR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by B2FiNiTY &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Good to hear you tried something different Chris. I'm interested in how long they will last under your car. </TD></TR></TABLE>

haha, you guys should get a pool going.

sil

where can i find the load rating of these (and load rating info in general).. pretty good deal at $79/tire with a 4tire rebate going on for $60 from tirerack.. i also noticed that tirerack now has road hazard warranty you can purchase

SoCal ITR

Load/diameter/etc specs: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...x.jsp

Overall ratings: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...GS-D3

sil

yea, i just found the info after i posted.. load ratnig is 82 as opposed to my stock of 84..i know this has been discussed before so I could try and search..i wonder exactly what they design to? do they expect full trunk and 3 passengers when choosing a tire with the specific load rating?

SoCal ITR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sil &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea, i just found the info after i posted.. load ratnig is 82 as opposed to my stock of 84..i know this has been discussed before so I could try and search..i wonder exactly what they design to? do they expect full trunk and 3 passengers when choosing a tire with the specific load rating?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I had considered if that would be a problem, but there are several people running 195/50 with no problems, and I assume that the load ratings would be similar.